Study Shows Growing Hemp Is A Powerful Tool To Fight Bee Population Decline

As the world population of honeybees continues to decline at a dangerous rate, a new study from Colorado State University purports to have found the answer to quell the decline—hemp. The reason hemp is such a boon to the bee population is simple, it is a great source of pollen.

Because the
hemp plant provides such a massive amount of pollen, it will provide them with
the resources they need to sustain and grow their populations.

According to researchers, most
hemp crops flower between July and September, coinciding with a lack of
pollen production from other farm crops.

Over 2,000 bees (and 23
different types of bee, including the European honeybee) were collected
during the study. The 23 bee types represent 80% of all types in the
region.

This discovery points to hemp as
a new pollen source for bees and could help sustain their populations.

Bee colonies have been declining in the U.S. due to stressors such as
pests, pesticide exposure and poor nutrition from a lack of pollen,
according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Researchers
noted that although “hemp does not
produce any nectar, the pollen rich nature of the flowers can make hemp an
ecologically valuable crop.” However, they also noted that as “cultivation of hemp continues to expand, we
expect insect pests on hemp to also become prevalent. Our results documenting
bee diversity in flowering hemp provides the impetus for the development of
integrated pest management plans that protect pollinators while controlling
pests.”

As TFTP
reported last year, another study showed that mushrooms could have a powerful
effect on bees by helping them combat the viruses that have been killing their
colonies.

According to
the results of this study, which was titled “Extracts of Polypore Mushroom Mycelia Reduces Viruses in Honey Bees,”
researchers were looking for a way to combat the highly infectious viruses that
were wiping out global honey bee populations, and they started looking at
mushrooms when they noticed bees were seeking out the fungus:

“BEES HAVE
BEEN OBSERVED FORAGING ON MUSHROOM MYCELIUM, SUGGESTING THAT THEY MAY BE
DERIVING MEDICINAL OR NUTRITIONAL VALUE FROM FUNGI. FUNGI ARE KNOWN TO PRODUCE
A WIDE ARRAY OF CHEMICALS WITH ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY, INCLUDING COMPOUNDS
ACTIVE AGAINST BACTERIA, OTHER FUNGI, OR VIRUSES. WE TESTED EXTRACTS FROM THE
MYCELIUM OF MULTIPLE POLYPORE FUNGAL SPECIES KNOWN TO HAVE ANTIVIRAL
PROPERTIES.”

The study
found that extracts from amadou and reishi fungi reduced the levels of honey
bee Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) and Lake Sinai Virus (LSV) with colonies that
were fed Ganoderma resinaceum extract showing “a
79-fold reduction in DWV and a 45,000-fold reduction in LSV compared to control
colonies,” which brought researchers to the conclusion that “honey bees may gain health benefits from
fungi and their antimicrobial compounds.”

Paul
Stamets, lead author of the study and founder of Fungi Perfecti, a business
focused on promoting the cultivation of mushrooms, told ABC News that he worked with researchers from
Washington State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the
study.

“This is a natural product and [it’s showing]
tremendous results in reducing the viruses of bees,” Stamets said,
noting that the mushrooms are “the
first antivirals to reduce viruses in bees.”

Published by
Nature Scientific Reports, the results of the study noted that over the last
decade, while the demand for honey bees has increased, the annual colony losses
have continued to increase, usually by more than 30% each year.

Researchers
began paying attention to the natural habits of the bees, which led them to
study why the bees were foraging directly on mushrooms. According to the study:

“HONEY
BEES HAVE BEEN OBSERVED FORAGING DIRECTLY ON MYCELIUM GROWING IN OUTDOOR
BEDS, LEADING TO SPECULATION THAT THEY MAY BE PROCURING A NUTRITIONAL OR
MEDICINAL GAIN. THIS BEHAVIOR MAY REPRESENT A NOVEL FACET OF SOCIAL IMMUNITY,
GIVEN THAT A GROWING BODY OF EVIDENCE INDICATES THAT HONEY BEES SELF-MEDICATE
USING PLANT-DERIVED SUBSTANCES. IN THIS STUDY, WE EVALUATED EXTRACTS DERIVED
FROM THE MYCELIA OF SEVERAL POLYPORE MUSHROOM SPECIES FOR ACTIVITY AGAINST TWO
MAJOR HONEY BEE VIRUSES IN VIVO IN BOTH LABORATORY AND FIELD STUDIES.
IN BOTH CASES, REDUCTIONS IN DWV AND LSV TITERS OCCURRED IN BEES THAT WERE FED
MYCELIAL EXTRACTS IN SUCROSE SYRUP.”

Stamets also
told ABC News that he was initially invited to submit his mushroom extract
samples to the Department of Defence’s “Project BioShield” following the
9/11 attacks when the government warned of a possible “biological attack”
and the extracts he provided were found to be “extraordinarily active.”

The power of
mushrooms is now having the same effect on fragile honey bees, and the study
found that the extracts could almost double the lifespan of caged bees while
simultaneously working to reduces their viral count.

One of the
most incredible things about this study is that the researchers took the time
to pay attention to the elements in nature that honey bees were attracted to,
and they found that the bees were instinctively foraging for a substance that
helped to protect them.

The study is
also yet another “win” for magic
mushrooms, and as The Free Thought Project has reported over the years, there
is no shortage of wonders that come from mushrooms, which include
treatment for depression, opioid
addiction, PTSD,
and mental
illness—just to name a few.

About the Author

Matt Agorist
is an honourably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence
operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique
insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state.
Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been
featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at
Large at the Free Thought Project. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Minds.

This Rainbow River In Colombia Has The Most Amazing Colors In The World

Caño Cristales is a vividly coloured river found in Colombia’s Meta region, in South America. It is commonly known as the “River of Five Colors” or the “Liquid Rainbow,” and when you are first confronted with its breath-taking beauty, you immediately know that these names are by no means an exaggeration.

During the peak season, Caño Cristales sports vivid colours including black, blue, green, yellow and red, the last caused by Macarenia clavigera plants. The river is said to contain no fish, and it is situated in a mountainous region with nearby grasslands. The total length of Caño Cristales is 100 kilometres (62 miles) and it lies in the Serrania de la Macarena National Park.

Image credit: Moterocolombia

Caño Cristales is a fast-flowing river with many rapids and waterfalls. Small circular pits known as giant’s kettles can be found in many parts of the riverbed, which have been formed by pebbles or chunks of harder rocks. Once one of these harder rock fragments falls into one of the cavities, it is rotated by the water current and begins to carve at the cavity wall, increasing the dimensions of the pit.

The river is home to a wide variety of aquatic plants. Its water is extremely clear due to the lack of nutrients and small particles – which also explain the absence of fish. Almost unique is the bright red – pink coloration of riverbed after the rainy period in the end of June – November, caused by the endemic plant species Macarenia clavígera.

The colours of Caño Cristales reach their peak some weeks between June and December, and this is the best time to visit. The river is in a remote area and can only be accessed by aircraft, then boat, and even then, a hike is required.

Tourists were unable to visit Caño Cristales for 20 years, from 1989 to 2008, mainly due to guerrilla warfare in the area, but also because of the potential negative effect they would have on the habitat. However, visitors have been able to tour the area since 2009 with authorised tourism companies.

(TMU) – After the horrific Australian bush fires over the 2019/2020 fire season, the Australian Reptile Park has good reason to celebrate, welcoming the first koala joey born at the park since the devastation. The Park’s handlers named the new-born Ash, in remembrance of the Black Summer fire season.

The koala population were arguably the hardest hit during the fires, with their death toll estimated to be in the thousands. Northern New South Wales lost about 85% of their koala population while researchers are still working around other areas to determine the extent of the damage between November and February. No wonder little Ash’s birth is being celebrated, hopefully the first of many joeys born in the wake of the fires.

Australian Reptile Park Zookeeper, Dan Rumsey said: “Ash represents the start of what we’re hoping to be another successful breeding season.”

“It was such an incredible moment when we saw Ash poke her head out of her mom’s pouch for the first time!”

While female koalas generally have one joey a year, some may go two to three years without having any and the stress suffered during the fires could have a negative impact on their reproduction, especially now, when their population across the country desperately needs a boost.

According to the Minister for the Environment, Sussan Ley, koalas could be listed as endangered because of the bushfire crisis. Earlier this year, the MP announced a $50 million funding package to help wildlife populations bounce back after the devastating bushfires.

Ms Ley told reporters: “It may be necessary… to see whether in certain parts of the country, koalas move from where they are, which is often vulnerable, up to endangered.”

Half the funds will go towards wildlife carers, hospitals and zoos, who have the people best equipped to lead the re-population and rehousing efforts.

Experts were shocked by the devastating loss of life during the 2019/2020 bush fire season – as was Cate Faehrmann – committee chair of the NSW upper house inquiry, when she saw the numbers from their investigation to determine how many koalas were lost over the period.

“That’s extremely shocking and really should be a wake-up call to the government to pause any threats to koala habitat including logging and development in key areas,” Cate Faehrmann told the Australian Associated Press (AAP).

“There are so many threats that if we are going to stop this wonderful animal from becoming extinct we have to really, really, prioritize securing and protecting their habitat now.”

For now, little Ash and her mom have set the ball rolling to rebuild their species. May they flourish and plenty of little joeys start popping their heads out of their mom’s pouches soon.

Until very recently, the highly intelligent and charismatic Hainan Gibbon was standing at the brink of imminent extinctionwith only 10 members of the species existing in a tiny patch of land on a tropical island at China’s southernmost tip.

But thanks to the devoted work of a team of conservationists, the ultra-rare Hainan Gibbon appears to have a much brighter future, with their numbers swelling to 30 individuals as of this year.

The Hainan Gibbon is not only one of the world’s rarest apes and rarest primates, but it’s also one of the rarest animals on the face of the Earth, largely restricted to a small patch of rainforest at the Bawangling National Nature Reserve on Hainan Island in the South China Sea.

Gibbons can be found in forests across Southeast Asia. Like other gibbons, the Hainan gibbon swings rapidly from tree to tree and mostly rely on fruit such as lychee and figs for its diet. The males have jet-black fur with white patches on their cheeks, while mature females are a rich golden orange. Their faces are tender, and their eyes seem to reflect an intelligent curiosity about their surroundings.

“They are really intelligent animals. When they look at you, it feels like they are trying to communicate,” Philip Lo Yik-fui told South China Morning Post. Lo has been helping to lead conservation efforts through the Hong Kong-based NGO, Kadoorie Conservation China.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature – which has included the species on its Red List as “Critically Endangered” – the Hainan gibbon used to exist in high numbers, with researchers estimating that over two thousand individuals populated the island.

However, the species’ numbers fell precipitously in the second half of the 20th century thanks to climate factors as well as massive deforestation resulting from China’s push toward prosperity and industrialization. Hunters and poachers also targeted the highly intelligent and social gibbons, either for the illegal pet trade, food, or for traditional medicine.

By 2003, only 13 wild gibbons divided into two family groups remained – a result of not only the diminishing quality of their habitat but also their naturally slow birth rate.

Over the years, however, Kadoorie Conservation China has been monitoring the gibbons, working hard to discourage poachers, and also planting over 80,000 fig and lychee trees to link the populations of the famously shy gibbons and expand their habitat.

BBC 3 Modern China SE Hainan Gibbon 5d

And with the gibbons now reproducing at a stable pace, Lo is hopeful that once they get the gibbons’ numbers above 50, their IUCN designation can change from being critically endangered to simply “endangered.”

“Our biggest goal now is to help expand the gibbons’ territory so the whole species won’t be wiped out if natural disasters occur,” Lo said.

Yet concerns remain about the genetic health of the Hainan Gibbons, who are mostly either half-siblings or full-siblings – meaning that their gene pool is far too narrow at present.

However, Lo is proud that his group’s efforts have stabilized things for the remaining Hainan Gibbons. His next goal is to continue expanding the creature’s territory so that if a typhoon or other natural disaster strikes, the whole species won’t be wiped out in one fell swoop.

The Kadoorie Conservation China team has also recruited ex-hunters from the community, who have a wealth of experience about local forests, to keep an eye on the gibbons and take part in conservation efforts.

Lo said: “We try and install a sense of pride in the locals, and the ex-hunters are really satisfied with their work now. That is the main point of conservation work; it’s just as much about the people. And now people who were on opposing sides are teammates working together to protect the gibbons.”

(TMU) – As the world continues to witness warming climate conditions, there has been a frightful uptick in massive wildfires from California to the Amazon rainforest and the Australian bush.

And as the world’s forests burn to the ground, this creates a dilemma not only for wildlife habitats but also for us humans – because trees help absorb and store carbon dioxide, they are one of our basic lines of defence against global warming.

However, a Canadian startup has set the lofty goal of using drones to plant a billion trees by 2028 – and in the process, the company hopes to revolutionize the manner in which the process of reforestation is tackled.

Flash Forest plans to deploy its revolutionary new technology to identify the best planting sites on fire-scorched land just north of Toronto where it can begin firing specially designed seedpods into the ground. The pods consist of germinated seeds, fertilizer, and a proprietary blend of “secret” ingredients, according to Newsweek.

A spray drone would then cover the area with nutrients such as nitrogen, helping the seedlings to grow, before mapping drones are sent later to monitor progress.

The company hopes to plant at least 40,000 trees in the Toronto region this month alone. Later this year, Flash Forest will also plant up to 300,000 trees in Hawaii.

Now On Kickstarter: Flash Forest | Using Drones to Plant 1 Billion Trees

And while people are capable of planting around 1,500 seed pods by hands, per day – requiring a hectic pace, without a doubt – Flash Forest’s drone solutions are apparently capable of planting 10,000 to 20,000 at present, with the company hoping to eventually be able to plant 100,000 a day.

And not only is the process far less intensive in terms of manual labour required, but it’s also far cheaper at around 50 cents per seed pod – about 20% cheaper than traditional planting techniques.

Image Credit: Flash Forest

According to a studypublished in the journal Science, planting about a billion trees across the globe could remove two-thirds of all carbon dioxide emissions worldwide—approximately 25% of the CO2 in the atmosphere—creating a vast natural means to trap and store the emissions in an affordable and politically non-controversial manner.

Image Credit: Flash Forest

The company claims that its drones can sharply increase the speed and efficiency of planting trees. The company said:

“Flash Forest is a reforestation company that can plant at 10 times the normal rate and at 20% of the cost of traditional tree planting techniques.

With drone engineering, we bring new levels of accuracy, precision and speed to the reforestation industry.”

The world faces a shrinking window of time in which to tackle the problem of heat-trapping emissions, with researchers warningthat rampant and accelerating hot conditions across the world could exceed the worst-case scenarios previously forecast by climate experts – giving added impetus to mitigation efforts.

Flash Forest co-founder and chief strategy officer Angelique Ahlstrom said that’s where its drones can be a crucial part of such a strategy. She told Fast Company:

“There are a lot of different attempts to tackle reforestation. But despite all of them, they’re still failing, with a net loss of 7 billion trees every year.”

Ahlstrom notes that it’s not possible to combat deforestation by planting trees alone – however, Flash Forest’s state-of-the-art hardware using mapping drones and pneumatic-powered firing devices that shoot pods deep into the soil can be an asset in the cause.

Continuing, she said:

“It allows you to get into trickier areas that human planters can’t.”

Each planting will also consist of four species and eventually eight – covering an aspect of mass tree-planting that similar initiatives have overlooked in the past. Ahlstrom said:

“We very much prioritize biodiversity, so we try to plant species that are native to the land as opposed to monocultures.

We work with local seed banks and also take into account that the different changes that climate change brings with temperature rise, anticipating what the climate will be like in five to eight years when these trees are much older and have grown to a more mature stage, and how that will affect them.”

And with researchers claiming that the Earth has room for over 1 trillion additional trees that can be planted across the globe, Flash Forest could help change the way any worldwide planting initiative would take shape. For Ahlstrom, it’s pretty simple math. She said:

“I think that drones are absolutely necessary to hit the kind of targets that we’re saying are necessary to achieve some of our carbon sequestration goals as a global society (and) when you look at the potential for drones, we plant 10 times faster than humans.”